


i see that you've come so far [just like them old stars]

by crossroadswrite



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cuddling, Derek Hale's Self-Worth Issues, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Getting Together, Love Confessions, M/M, POV Alternating, POV Cora Hale, POV Derek Hale, POV Stiles Stilinski, Pack, Post-Season/Series 03A, Sterek Week, Touch Starved Derek Hale, getting better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-28 01:34:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5072833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crossroadswrite/pseuds/crossroadswrite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>But her big brother’s unwillingness to touch anyone, like he thinks he doesn’t deserve it isn’t the only thing she notices. She also notices how Stiles doesn’t touch him.</p>
<p>Everyone reaches for Derek in some form or another, but Stiles- Stiles is something different altogether because he reaches for Derek but he never makes contact.</p>
<p>He’ll be trying to shimmy past Derek and instead of putting a hand on his arm like most of them do, he’ll reach out with a hand and stop it scant centimeters away from Derek’s skin.</p>
<p>Or they’ll be walking alongside each other and Stiles will hover a hand on Derek’s lower back.</p>
<p>It’s both fascinating and tragic to watch, like NASA lost control of one of their robots and instead of it landing on the moon it’s fated to gravitate around it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i see that you've come so far [just like them old stars]

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from ['I Won't Give Up' by Jason Mraz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1-4u9W-bns).

-familial love-

Cora has become very good at noticing things. She had to if she wanted to survive, because _not noticing_ something is what could get you killed in a life like hers, not noticing something is what could get you captured by a band of maniac Alphas on a bender.

So yeah, she’s become good at noticing things, being aware of her surroundings and all that hypervigilance crap.

One of the first things she notices, after the Alphas have been defeated and they all feel like they can breathe again, is how her brother avoids touch.

Even from his own pack, he avoids touch like it’s the plague or maybe like he’s four again and everyone around him has cooties.

Cora grabs his shoulder once and he flinches away, nauseating guilt and self-loathing spiking his scent in such a way that she has to twist her nose and open a window or two so she doesn’t suffocate on it.

But her big brother’s unwillingness to touch anyone, like he thinks he doesn’t deserve it isn’t the only thing she notices. She also notices how Stiles _doesn’t_ touch him.

Everyone reaches for Derek in some form or another, but Stiles- Stiles is something different altogether because he reaches for Derek but he never makes contact.

He’ll be trying to shimmy past Derek and instead of putting a hand on his arm like most of them do, he’ll reach out with a hand and stop it scant centimeters away from Derek’s skin.

Or they’ll be walking alongside each other and Stiles will hover a hand on Derek’s lower back.

It’s both fascinating and tragic to watch, like NASA lost control of one of their robots and instead of it landing on the moon it’s fated to gravitate around it.

Cora’s been trying to understand what’s going on between them, why Stiles does what he does and she’s been coming up empty.

«»

Stiles makes an oofing sound when she slams him against the door.

“If I had any doubts you were a Hale, they are gone now,” he mutters, rubbing the back of his head with a wince.

“What’s up with you and my brother,” she demands and watches Stiles’ face intently, listens to his heartbeat and how it trips over itself a little when she mentions Derek.

“I’m- I don’t know what you’re-“

“The touching but not touching thing. What _is_ that?”

She needs to know. She needs to know what it is and why it makes her brother’s scent turn soft.

“I don’t understand what’s the problem.”

“The _problem_ is that Derek flinches away from everyone but not you and I want to know why so I can _fix it_.”

Stiles’ expression turns unbearably sad for a moment.

“He- he’s had a lot of people use his body as a means to an end. And I just figured, if I need to reach out for him I want him to do it first, I don’t want to _take_ anything he isn’t a hundred percent aware he’s giving.”

Cora’s grip goes lax with surprise. “You’re in love with him.”

Stiles’ cheeks color a little bit. “Well, I mean. Who _wouldn’t_ be?”

And that’s how Stiles Stilinski becomes her favorite person in Derek’s little pseudo-pack.

«»

She doesn’t stop noticing things, especially now that she knows exactly what’s going on and can see the most subtle of movements.

Like how Derek always sways even if it’s just a little bit towards Stiles, how when he needs it he outright stretches until his body makes contact with Stiles’ hand or thigh or shoulder.

She notices how the tips of his ears turn red when Stiles sprawls on the couch next to him and grins in that way he has of grinning up at Derek like he’s sharing an exciting secret only the two of them are privy to.

The first time she catches Stiles on the couch with his feet tucked under Derek’s thighs while he plays Pokémon on his DS is also the first time in years that Derek reaches out and puts a hand on her hip to get her to move aside so he can pass.

Cora is so surprised she just stumbles a little bit, holds her breath and doesn’t dare lean into it least Derek realize what he’s done and flinch away.

She catches Stiles by the elbow before he leaves. “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it,” she tells him and almost makes it sound like a threat.

“I’m not doing anything,” he shrugs a shoulder like it’s no big deal and Cora rolls her eyes at him and pushes him out the door.

A week later Derek hugs her for a full minute and she missed this so much her eyes might’ve gotten a little misty.

“Missed you,” she says, very quietly.

“Missed you too, little one.”

 

-romantic love-

It’s not like Stiles doesn’t notice it. It’s not even hard to notice it, for all the werewolf stealth, Derek sure can be obvious about a lot of things.

The fact that he’s unbearably touch starved is just the second biggest of them, the first being that he obviously doesn’t think he deserves being touched, he doesn’t deserve proximity and love and acceptance, he’s afraid what terrible thing will happen if he lets another person get too close again.

Derek trusts too much, Stiles has noticed.

Even if he pretends he doesn’t, he does and it’s one of this world’s tragedies, how much of himself he always puts on the line and how much is constantly taken away and beaten down and burned before it’s thrown back in his face.

“How’s it going, dude?” Stiles asks, very carefully hovering his hand over Derek’s shoulder until he shrugs so it makes contact. He grins and squeezes it.

“Don’t call me dude,” Derek says as a way of greeting and Stiles can’t really help the way his eyes soften at the corners.

“Whatever you say, CuddleDer.”

Derek growls a little, but it’s more playful than anything else.

Derek has never once growled at him or even flashed his eyes or threatened with claws. Sure he handed out verbal threats like free samples but actually following through by using his werewolf abilities? Never.

It’s one of the things Stiles loves about him.

“What, you’re the one that told me not to call you dude.”

Derek sighs and turns away from him, heading towards the couch and plopping down, remote in one hand as he looks up expectantly at Stiles.

“Is it okay if I sit here?” he asks, and normally he wouldn’t, but he wants to test something out.

Derek rolls his eyes and tugs him down on the couch and Stiles somehow ends half on it and half on Derek.

He makes no movement to get off though, simply adjusts his position until he’s comfy and somehow ends up with a leg thrown over Derek’s and scooted far enough down on the couch he fits perfectly under Derek’s arm.

He’s pretty sure if he were a cat he’d be purring right now. And maybe so would Derek.

“What do you want to watch? And your answer better be Orange Is The New Black otherwise I’ll have to break up with you.”

Derek clicks on the episode the left off and runs a thumb down Stiles’ arm almost absent-mindedly.

“We’re not dating Stiles.”

He hums and focuses on the screen for a whole of three seconds before he says, “We should.”

“We should?”

“Yeah. We should date.”

The arm that’s draped over Stiles’ back goes tense and it takes Derek a couple of solid minutes in silence to slowly relax and say, “Okay.”

Stiles turns his smile and hides it against Derek’s side. “Okay, cool.”

«»

Two weeks after Stiles starts dating Derek, Cora comes up to him exuding her usual level of _touch me and die_ and hugs him, completely out of nowhere just wraps her arms around him and awkwardly holds on for a couple of seconds, whispers “Thank you” in his ear before she lets go and stalks away like nothing happened.

That’s not the only weird thing that happens.

Boyd has taken to looking at him with fondness almost. Like Stiles has somehow proven himself to him once and for all; Isaac will just outright put him in a headlock and throw an arm over his shoulder from time to time and Erica has no qualms in jumping on him every chance she gets.

Scott starts looking at him a little weirdly, but that only lasts until the moment Derek claps him on the shoulder and he sees how Derek will actually touch people now, how he’ll reach out and gently remove Erica from her perch on the counter and how he’ll ruffle Isaac’s hair and tell him if he doesn’t behave he’ll shave it and how he’ll pat Boyd on the shoulder and lean against him like it’s something so simple.

This, of course, a while after they start dating. It’s not like Stiles is a magical worker and it’s not like trauma goes away just because you love someone. That’s not how it works, that’s never how it’s going to work.

“You’re good for him,” Scott tells him, quietly, looking at Derek like he’s actually _considering_ something.

Stiles shrugs a shoulder. “He’s good for me too.”

Scott laughs a little and bumps their shoulders together. “Yeah, yeah he is.”

 

-self love-

Derek realizes he’s in love with Stiles on a Sunday afternoon.

They’re on the couch and they’re cuddling, like they do.

Cuddling has pretty much become one of Derek’s favorite activities to do with Stiles, especially now that he’s going away for college and he’s trying to get as much cuddle time as he possibly can.

This is one of the cuddle positions he loves, when Stiles will somehow squeeze himself behind Derek on the couch and will lock his arms and legs around him like a koala, running his nose and cheek all over Derek’s shoulder and neck and keeping low hummed commentary going on whatever it is they’re watching.

A couple others of his favorite positions are when Stiles lays next to him and tucks him just under his chin and just holds him for as long as they can maintain that position, runs a hand up and down Derek’s back and traces patterns and letters into his skin.

He also loves it when Stiles is straddling him, Derek’s hands on his hips and they’re so close but always leave some distance so they can look each other in the eye and just talk. Stiles sometimes likes to take his finger and run it over Derek’s features, traces the bridge of his nose and his cheekbones and his ears and his jaw and his neck and his eyebrows like he’s something worth paying attention, like Derek is worth his time.

“You’re thinking so loudly I can’t hear the  TV,” Stiles mutters and rubs his forehead back and forward across Derek’s shoulder and Derek realizes that he loves this, loves Stiles practically draped over his back, loves the way his breath ghosts over his neck, loves the way he’ll laugh at something and Derek will be able to feel it rumble against his back.

Loves and adores and almost goddamn worships when Stiles presses his lips against his neck with a smile curving them like he’s trying to brand his happiness into Derek’s skin.

He realizes that he loves this because its Stiles and he realizes this when Adventure Time is playing on his flat screen and Erica is currently foreplaying with Cora in the kitchen and Isaac is reading a book in the bay window a handful of feet away from them and he almost doesn’t say it.

He almost doesn’t say it, but since he’s got together with Stiles, since Stiles reached out for him and patiently waited for him to reach back he’s been getting better at this, better at knowing how much to give and who to give it to.

He’s getting better at feeling he’s safe within this house with these people, his pack.

Since he started dating Stiles he’s done nothing but learn how to reach out again and see that he can rely on his pack as much as he makes his pack rely on him.

So he almost doesn’t say it because maybe the circumstances could be better, it could be more romantic, but Derek’s done nothing but reach out this past few years and it’s nothing to say, “I love you.”

Stiles heart stutters in his chest, like a kid skipping rope that wants to go faster than their friends and pushing themselves that little bit extra before they have to slow down again or risk tripping face first into the floor.

“Yeah,” Stiles says softly like he knows, and Derek can feel him pressing a kiss on his shoulder, just where is tank top meets his skin. “I love you too. Obviously. Ridiculously.”

“Unstoppably,” he adds and Stiles laughs a little.

“That was cheesy.”

“And yours wasn’t?”

“Mine was smooth.”

Derek pinches his leg. “You’re an idiot,” he says as Stiles yelps and rubs at the sting, pouting slightly and reaching for Derek’s cheek to turn his head so he can kiss his mouth, soft and chaste and like his heart is too full and it spills into Derek’s mouth everything he’s feeling.

Truth is, Derek wasn’t really being that cheesy. It is what it is.

He’s in love with Stiles like a comet is pulled by the earth’s gravitation, holed and burning out and crashing at great velocity, only to be treated like a wonder when it’s discovered.

That’s how Stiles makes him feel, and Derek is, maybe, very slowly, starting to think that maybe he deserves it.

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be happy happy fun napping and cuddling times
> 
> *huffs and stomps away to go write about puppies*


End file.
